Getting on a plane home is easy. You sit and it moves you. But what about if a part of you is left behind? What if you aren't the same person who first stepped on that plane?
It is the getting back to daily living that is hard. It seems so wrong - weren't you just with me? Wasn't I just there? Our eyes are filled with the faces of dear friends and shadows and light on green quilted fields. I hear church bells, chickens clucking, music playing a few floors up and voices calling out. I see the castle tower on a blue sky, the rustic red "Christian Bookstore" sign, the overly-hacked garden where hours were spent turning over the soil and making way for new growth, the arches and doorways and worn wooden stairs. I sense the coming and going and constant activity. Hurlach Castle is in our memories - and hopefully those seeds sown there will yield their fruit in due season.
We received a devotional journal for reflection upon returning home. The writers of this book know what they are talking about. They seemed to have nailed it on the head as to what we are experiencing:
"Before your trip, your wealth might have been taken for granted like sand through the fingers...You saw hope placed in things instead of in the Maker of those things. And in the process of this tension, a new community of worshipers developed on your journey as you worked together with others and served cross-culturally. Tuck this tension deep into your heart...Let the spiritual struggle and pain come as a special guest into your heart and let God mold it to be more like Christ's heart." (Reflect Mission Trip Devotional Journal)
I've already sensed that no one can really understand what it was like except those we were with in Germany. And that's okay. That is the way God meant it to be.
And I have hope - the same God who called and sent and provided and came down among us to cause us to open our hearts, that same God is now with you where you are. And He will lead you on.
" I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart..."
Philippians 1:3-7
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